History Repeats
by Islagatt
Summary: Time and time again, ninja never learn the mistakes of history... Well. One might.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Major computer crash here folks, getting my writing bits together gain. Please bear with me or a while. Enjoy.

History Repeats

A Lesson

-

When the Hidden Village of the Leaf went to war, there was a team of ninja who were stronger than any other. The squad was feared and respected, the Leaf revered them and the enemy reviled them. Some on all sides of the conflict wished them horrid and painful deaths. The three had been born into a politically unstable time. Tragedy had only passed from the village, and it was not long before war engulfed them. They were still relatively new ninja when first sent into battle.

In spite of their inexperience, it was expected that the ninja would be powerful. They had tremendous potential and one of them was considered a great genius. They had a teacher who was renowned throughout the shinobi world, respected as a genius and had trained under a genius teacher of his own. It had been his first genin team, and it would be his only genin team. The war came and the group was simply too effective as a fighting unit to take veterans off the field to train new recruits.

However, all things are broken in times of war.

The team was disrupted when the Hokage, the revered leader of the Leaf, admired by all for valor and bravery, feared by many for power and recklessness, was struck down. The war lapsed and Konoha fell back under their opponent's onslaught, spurred on by the Hokage's death. Reacting to the tide turning, the leader of the team who slaughtered and carved their way through the enemy took charge, organized the defense and the counterattack.

He took over the place of the previous Hokage, unintentionally, and unwillingly, but there he was, and there was naught to be done for it. If the loss of their teacher deterred the team, they showed no signs of it. They pressed on with savage fury, slaying and laying waste to the enemy. Expressing their feelings of loss in the enemy's bodies it seemed.

Suddenly without having their sensei, the three realized they were no longer children, and that they in turn were doing a disservice by not teaching their skills to the next generation. So, two of them went out to find their students from the children still learning at the ninja academy, while the third reorganized and made the hospital in the hidden leaf efficient once more. The two who took students still went out into battle when they were called, and with their teammate still slaughtered anything between them and victory. But it had been years since they first set out in the war, and they were still trying to help their new apprentices.

The older of the two apprentices soon became a great ninja in his own right, and went with his master out on missions, showing himself to be adept, a master of his skills, and swift of mind to boot. It was not long before that ninja established his own legend and he too became feared by the enemy and revered by his allies. However as mighty as he was, the three original ninja were still stronger together. They got farther, deeper into enemy lines, and came back with better than three kills for every one of his. They were the superior force, and most knew it.

Eventually, the enemy was defeated, and the war was over. At a heavy price to Konoha, but a heavier still price to their opponents. The three ninja returned home, and the solitary hero returned as well. The village settled quickly into peace, weary from the long war and needing rest. The Hokage, too, was tired, exhausted from the drain of war and leadership that he had endured since his predecessor's death. He stepped down and set about selecting his successor.

Now the young hero of the war had been amazing, but he only come into his own near the end of the war. The three ninja had been there throughout the entire affair, and proved their worth early on. Their exploits were tremendous and easily exceeded the young hero's accomplishments. One of the three ninja had made it his purpose in life to be Hokage. He fought hard for that purpose and dreamed of being there to protect the people of Konoha. His teacher and his teammates knew of his dream, and most expected he would be new Hokage.

He was not.

The sudden betrayal he was shown, with the disbanding of his team as a combat unit, embittered him. He withdrew from the social light. All the while his devoted apprentice followed him. This ninja, whose dream was shattered, turned to learning, but what he learned was not accepted, was not desired and the people had no use for his knowledge. When his sensei discovered his means of learning, he was forced to flee the village. Although he had never hurt a citizen of leaf, his experiments required human bodies.

The ninja went to his apprentice and told her what had happened. He explained why he had to leave, being with her completely honest. He gave her the chance to stay behind in Konoha, to fulfill his dream, to be strong and one day perhaps become Hokage. But she refused, and went with him while he moved from country to country. Staying one step ahead of the hunter-nin and establishing bases of operations throughout the world. As time went on he lost his early ambivalence and became even more bitter with Konoha. Coming to hate them and curse their name.

The ninja's teammates were shocked and distraught by his departure. One who regarded him as a brother felt betrayed, and set out to find him. They had asked each other, 'why? What did we do to send him away?' But they knew his dream was shattered, and that he had to find a new dream. They hoped, and prayed, that one day he would return to them and be their friend again. For they had been family before, and family always forgives.

So it was that Uchiha Sasuke left fire country, promising his former teammate Haruno Sakura- who was now Hokage- that he would return with their friend and his brother. He would bring back Uzumaki Naruto, who held the nine-tailed demon fox in his stomach, and whom the villagers cursed and spat upon even when he had been a hero for the village. The man who had slain Orochimaru, had been trained by Hatake Kakashi and Jiraiya, Sasuke would find this man and bring him home.

-

Author Note: fufufufu…

I do not own Naruto…


	2. Chapter 2

AN: To Masashi Kishimoto, Subj.: Manga 346. Fuck you too asshole. Keep your goddamn shit-hole manga and the backward-ass-filler-fuck you call an anime. I never owned it and I thank the gods for that.

AN2: To the fans I haven't alienated, uhm, this chapter's ready to go now so here it is, and the next chapter is already in the works. The progress of At Any Cost is a little slow because of the cpu breakdown, and then I abandoned what I had to get it started to where it's going now. On the plus side it looks like it'll be picking up some serious steam now. "Hasamite, please watch closely." – attr. a chuunin candidate.

History Repeats

Villainy

-

Uzumaki, for he now disliked the name Naruto, sat in the most deceptively comfortable chair in the world. For all appearances the chair was made of solid stone. In reality the stone was soft and loamy, shaped just right. Coupled with surprisingly thick layers of clothes, you had one very surprisingly comfortable chair. He sat in his chair addressing a representative of the Hidden Cloud village, who, when one really considered things, were minor players on the grand scene of villages. Despite every subtle or covert action Uzumaki had done, Leaf village still played a prominent role. The other elemental villages did too but none to the same degree as Leaf.

It was sad that Uzumaki couldn't be more original but to send the leaf into the death spiral he desired, he had to take a page from his current role model's book and start his own village. The only question was, where would he get the people for such a village? Dearly departed Orochimaru's method of taking in the rogue ninja was no longer viable. The missing-nin of the world were now readily taken in by the other villages. Like so many carrion birds, they absorbed or picked off the dead flesh of the missing nin breed. However, there was always another way… This was why there was a man from the lightning country kneeling before him right now.

"Uzumaki-kyo," the blonde got a thrill every time he heard that Lord Uzumaki. It was so… poetic. "Our forces are ready to make their move. They have gathered as you commanded at the outskirts of the village."

Uzumaki smiled, his apprentice stepping forward just far enough so that her face was obscured, but the wondrous curves of her body, wrapped as they were in a dark crimson yukata, were illuminated by the oil lamps in the room. The twisted ninja spoke coolly, his tone even and collected, in no way like his former self. "And what of the Raikage, does he understand his role?"

"He does, Uzumaki-kyo. His loyal forces and mercenaries you have arranged for him will fall upon the rebels and kill enough to break their spirit. A brilliant plan, Uzumaki-kyo."

"It is, isn't it? One that requires my rebels never know about my involvement as well… That necessitates having all the witnesses killed now doesn't it, my lovely deshi-chan?" (1)

Her responding chuckle was like silk over a dagger, as it stabs into your side. The voice was beautiful and haunting both at once. Her motions were like a ghost's, noticeable only a half-second too late to see she had moved. The woman was behind the messenger now, still quietly giggling with glee. "Why yes, Uzumaki-shihou, you _would_ have to remove all the people who knew… unless-"

Naruto was impatient, he was all about action. Uzumaki was deliberate. He delighted in prolonging this pain and suffering. "Unless what, my deshi-chan?

"Unless of course you could somehow guarantee their silence, Uzumaki-shihou," she said with a cruel smile over her blue-painted lips.

In his chair the demon-man tapped his chin thoughtfully, as though considering. The kneeling man was whimpering in terror now. He stood no chance against Uzumaki's student. "I-I-I, w-won't tell anyone, Y-you have my word Uzumaki-kyo!"

"Yes, I know that, I wouldn't have used you this long if I didn't know that. You have held your word up until this point, so perhaps…" He trailed off and his student slipped her dagger back into the folds of her robe. The man on the ground was now sobbing in gratitude.

"OH THANK YOU magnanimous Uzumaki-kyo, thank you thank you! I-"

His voice cut to a yelp and then a strangled gurgle as he received a powerful and deliberate strike to a pressure point at the base of his neck, with a simultaneous chakra-strengthened kick meeting his kidney. The girl's voice was no longer soft and cool. It was regal, disdainful, and carried a lingering purity that made the listener agree they were filthy and disgusting. "Uzumaki-shihou did not give you permission to speak. He was not finished yet!" Though the shadow obscured it, she looked to her master, who grinned a small, evil grin.

"Right as always. As I was saying, perhaps you should be rewarded for your service to our cause, but that would lead to complications… Well we can always find a use for you. I have many experiments left behind by my predecessor you know, and I have always wondered what I might do with some of them…"

Whether the man on the floor convulsed in pain or shuddered in fear seemed immaterial.

-

It was a sight to behold, roughly a third of the lightning country's military force (2) and a sizable portion of their ninja-to-be, retreating full away from half of the aforementioned nation's military, supplemented by a forward wave of rough and ready mercenaries numbering at least half the size of the retreating enemy. Leading the retreat was a woman of stunning, regal beauty and haunting allure, a long mane of silken dark-violet hair stretched behind her. Her face was obscured by an ANBU-style mask, and turned back over her shoulder to see where her master was.

Said master was at the rear of the retreating mass, kunai and shuriken flying every which way, explosions and chakra-powered flares of energy and death halting the enemy pursuit, if only for a little while. He flowed with true ninja grace through the ranks of the mercenary forces, red and silver splashed this way and that, in a dance that the woman at the refugee's fore wished to stay and watch. However, she had an objective, and absolute faith in her master. She didn't need to worry for him now because there was no way he'd be beaten.

The man drifted this way and that. A henge making him seem like any other mercenary. Hundreds of shadow clones drifting in all different directions supplemented his graceful, efficient method of killing. Run with the mob, run by a soldier and throw something, run past one and leave a knife in his kidney, a stab through the ribcage to puncture the heart, any number of effective choices. Ninja excelled at killing non-ninja, confused non-ninja embroiled in chaos like this were beneath the rank of easy prey. Even the elite, cloud ANBU forces drawing in on his shadow-clone forces were scarcely a match for the blonde's shadow clones. Expert traps hidden in the mire of blood and bodies sprang to life. The shouts and sight of the charging mercenary army drowned out the warning sounds of weapons racing through the air or springs and wires releasing. By the time the Jounin reached the field of bodies, there were not enough traps remaining to be a danger to them. By the time Chuunin arrived there were none left.

When the mercenary force was cut in half, their charge had become a rout. ANBU from the cloud chased, hurled knives and threw lightning jutsu into their ranks. Not all of the attacks were from clones, either, as the ANBU had decided to smoke out the aggressor. But by now, they were too worn down to be much of a challenge to the vast, numerical superiority of the remaining rear-guard. In a confusing display of violence that forced the jounin ranks following to falter, ANBU forces and some mercenaries turned upon the remainder of the ANBU agents, the greater portion of the non-ninja mercenary army was broken already and seeing their employers embroiled in such a confusing conflict was the final straw.

The army scattered and broke into the surrounding forests and fields, any semblance of organization long gone. When the mercenaries were gone, and the ANBU slaughtered off, the jounin faltered. The chuunin and the genin behind became quite scared. They stared down at a messy and mangled group of clone ANBU and mercenaries who stood shoulder to shoulder in a wide rank. At their fore was the instigator of the entire event. The remaining forces capable of fighting quickly arrayed themselves in a mirror-image of the line facing them. The tall man who faced them, standing before his final line, had tanned skin and smoothly schooled blonde hair and hard blue eyes that glistened with mirth. Currently they were scrunched up slightly as his face was split with a malevolent, subtle grin.

"Boo!" he said to the line of kumo-nin. Behind him, the forces began simultaneously performing hand-seals, different length arms and fingers acted in eerie synchronization. It took a moment but the jutsu was quickly recognized. In the split-second, Uzumaki had disappeared again, but the remaining men were met with a new problem. With Uzumaki's voice, the clone line shouted at the kumo forces "Raiton: Dai Natsurai no jutsu!" (3).

The line of clones exploded en-masse and released a surging cloud of chakra-laden smoke. Charged by the jutsu as it was, the cloud was already flashing dangerously with internal lightning. The Raikage grimly realized that his best forces were dead, and his expendables were gone. The mission was supposed to have Uzumaki lure out his dissidents and then let them be crushed, not this massive disaster. With a distasteful sneer he realized he'd been played.

Still, the village was the first priority, and the Raikage sounded the retreat, rather than charge through the jutsu to pursue forces with a ridiculous lead on them and in particular, Uzumaki. Damn them.

-

"Gyou Kigenso, you have been accused of selling secrets of Iwagakure no Sato to our hated enemy, Sunagakure. What do you have to say in your defense?" The Tsuchikage sat back almost lazily in the throne of blackened, volcanic rock he used for his court appearances. The tall desk before him served well to add a sort of imperial weight to his presence, intimidating those on trial. Almost as well as the three expert torture-workers on his right side. They always wore masks, one a shrieking face, one a scorpion and one an indecipherable storm of kanji. The interrogators would wear the masks so long as they lived, until another was ready to take up the mantle. The three minds of torture were another psychological weapon of the Iwa court.

Standing behind a far less impressive table was the accused, Gyou Kigenso. Kigenso was a mountainous man, over two meters tall and covered completely with muscle. His face was expressionless, he would not let on his fear to the torture-minds or his Tsuchikage. To do so would be to bring shame upon his spirits. Kigenso bowed before he answered the question, forcing the tremors out of his voice with a sheer effort of will. "I have nothing to say in my defense but that I have always been loyal to my village."

The Tsuchikage had expected such a statement, and cursed the formalities that didn't let him just execute the traitor. "Then you deny the accusations." It wasn't a question.

"I deny the accusations, my lord."

There was a moment's pause and the scorpion-masked figure shifted subtly. Not a threatening gesture, but enough to let him see the knives he had stored about his person. His attention was abruptly called back to the Tsuchikage when he began to speak. "You leave us no choice then. Gyou Kigenso, because of the weight of the evidence levied against you, you have been found guilty, and are sentenced to die by the hands of the three minds. You shall be given a week's forestallment of the punishment, so that you may reflect upon your crimes and perhaps learn better for the next life. Take him to the place of incarceration."

And as easily as that, Kigenso's brief, prosperous life was cut short. Brutally ended by someone's allegations and his own guilt. He knew that his efforts had been splendidly covert, that there was no possible way for anyone to have known the secrets he had passed onto Sunagakure. With a sigh, he released himself to the guards, who quickly escorted him from the courtroom towards the Traitor's Tower, as it was so affectionately labeled.

In truth, he hadn't meant harm to anyone by giving up the almost irrelevant information. It was only the results of an investigation into the decimation of their former ally's military. He simply followed what the spirits who governed his life compelled him to do. They were after all, what made him strong. If passing along the information, and then dying was in line with their plans, well then…it was his duty as a Gyou clan member to further them.

That being said, he really didn't want to die.

-

Gyou stared out from the bars some three days after his sentencing. The spirits had not whispered soothing messages of peace and fulfillment to him as they were supposed to this close to death. He began to feel as if they, like his family and his village had abandoned him to his fate. That was simply unfair. Despite being a mountain of a man, Kisengo wanted to curl up and cry for what was going to happen to him. All this for doing what he was told. It wasn't death per se that he feared, it was the way of the death that would be so horrible.

The storm would crack him open by exploiting his emotions, until he felt unimaginable despair. The scorpion would deliver him into pain so remarkable that no man emerged whole from it. Then, the shrieking mask would drive his mind apart and in on itself infinitely, until he willed himself into death. The bodies from the three mind's torture sessions were never seen by anyone. Supposedly the sight was something only they and their successors could cope with. Kisengo had always believed it was simply so that they could add more to their mystique and fear.

Musing about his death, however, was cut short as a face suddenly appeared on the other side of the bars. It was not a face he recognized at all, and in the darkness of night he couldn't really be sure of any of the features. It was then that Kisengo realized the figure was floating outside the tower, looking into his cell. "What the fuck?!" he articulated in the graceful fashion of young Iwa-nin.

The face laughed a dark and cold laugh with little humor in it, before slowing and regarding him with evaluating eyes. "Your village and family… they have betrayed you haven't they?" Kisengo's eyes widened suddenly, how did this person know what he had been thinking? "It is a painful thing to have happened. For one so young to die, it must be awful to you. You think to yourself that 'it isn't fair?'… There is a place for people who have been betrayed like you. You could live, you know…" The voice was like oil, it made Kisengo shiver slightly. But at the same time it was hypnotic, and with all the truths it had uttered so far, he was desperate to hear more.

"How? Please, tell me how I can live!" He hadn't realized how badly he wanted to live until just now, with the possibility of life staring him in the face. The man smirked ever so slightly and Kisengo shivered again.

"If you wish to live… serve me. Find purpose, find something worth living for and follow me to glory and power." He could see that Kisengo had already forsaken Iwa, he would have followed him anywhere just then. The man reached up to the bars and dropped a small, black pellet inside, like a soldier pill. "If you serve me then you must have total faith in me. And if you have faith in me then you should fear nothing. Take the pill and die for me. Or stay in your cell here until they take you away. Only one of these actions will grant you life and my favor… Choose now."

Kisengo was rooted to the spot. He wanted to live. He wanted to live very badly. But how could he live if he died? It struck him that even if he didn't die now, he'd die soon, by someone else's means… After a brief moment Kisengo picked up the little black sphere and swallowed it. His eyes went wide for a moment and spasms wracked his body as pain overtook him, there was a quiet gasp before he stilled and fell to the side.

The figure outside smiled unpleasantly and went to work.

-

Two days after, the medical examiner for the Iwa military courts pulled out a card and prepared a chart for his autopsy of Gyou Kisengo. Yet another person killed in the series of bombings that had taken place the previous day's morning. He sighed heavily and shook his head, it wasn't right for such cowardly tactics to take so many young people. He looked about confusedly when he entered the room and looked to his assistant. "Where's the body?" he asked.

The other doctor shrugged helplessly. "You mean that Kisengo one? The family picked it up earlier, clan secrets and things, they said. You know how it is with those Gyou." The doctor nodded sagely and shrugged in defeat.

"Well, alright then, so who's up next?"

-

Gyou Kisengo gasped suddenly for breath, before convulsing forward and having a violent coughing fit, concluding with emptying the contents of his stomach on the floor beside him. When he had some control over his body again, he tried to take in the place he was in. It was a brightly lit room, all whites, presumably some kind of hospital. He looked to see who was with him and found the same face from before. Standing beside him this time, was an elegantly beautiful woman, with violet hair and pale eyes. Her smile was a mirror of the man's. When Kisengo took in the face again, only now did it click.

"Uzumaki Naruto… Konoha's missing-nin" then that made the woman… "Hyuuga-"

He was interrupted by the blonde. "Welcome to Koukongakure no Sato, Gyou Kisengo, missing-corpse of Iwa."

-

Uchiha Sasuke paused as he regarded the killing field. He had seen worse in the war, but that never made it easy to walk among the dead and rotting. By his estimation the corpses had to be at least a month or two old. The place didn't stink as bad as it should have, but the bodies had been flash-fried by something. He didn't need much help to guess this was what happened to Kumogakure's ninja… it simply disturbed him that a shinobi nation had acted in such a block military formation. There must have been some kind of plan. The number of mercenary bodies forced him to think that whatever it was, it had been well and thoroughly planned out.

Against the combined weight of a shinobi nation's military force in such a formation, with such plans… Sasuke knew only two people who could pull something like this off, and his apprentice was in Konoha right now. There weren't any non-kumo hitai-ate, so it hadn't been another army's ambush. He was almost sure now of what this was. He found a trap hidden inside of a ronin's stomach, an explosive seal and a pack of senbon, and knew that his friend had been here.

The battlefield bore all the signs of Uzumaki Naruto's anger. Including a total lack of casualties for the pursued forces. Sasuke had to smirk as he thought about it. His friend, his brother still wanted to protect his people. Naruto never did change too much… Sasuke could bring him back after all. He'd just have to find the blonde first, and that shouldn't be too hard.

After all, how many alternatives were there to starting a new hidden village when one had a couple hundred landless ninja?

-

AN: Fufufufufu… such a satisfying sound.

1: Deshi – the word for student, disciple, or apprentice.

2: I say military force because in my mind, most genin really don't count. Thus I am counting only chuunin and above (or really exceptional genin) as components of this group.

3: Lightning release/element: grand/big/great heat thunderstorm (literally summer lightning, but you get the idea). Or if that explanation sucks, Grand Heat-Thunderstorm.

4: Koukongakure no Sato: The village hidden in the dusk/twilight.


End file.
